Network-based social media telephony firewall

ABSTRACT

A method receives a call from a device of a caller destined to a device of a subscriber of a communication network. The method connects the call to the device of the subscriber and then receives from the device of the subscriber an indication that the call is an undesirable call. The indication further includes a description of the call. The method then provides a reward to the subscriber when the indication further includes the description of the call.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/054,142, filed Oct. 15, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,154,621, which isherein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

The present disclosure relates generally to communication networks and,more particularly, to detecting and preventing calls from unwantedcallers using feedback from subscribers.

BACKGROUND

Unwanted or undesirable calls present a particular problem for manynetwork subscribers as well as for the communication networkinfrastructure. For example, telemarketers, survey outfits, charities,political groups and others may continually place calls to large numbersof subscribers. Many times the callers are deemed to be pushy oraggressive by the recipients of such calls. In addition, many entitiescontinue to place calls to the same subscriber despite having been askedto stop calling. In some cases, these unwanted calls result in usagecharges to a subscriber, further adding to the subscriber's frustration.There are schemes in place to address these problems. For example, withrespect to cellular networks, current Federal Communication Commission(FCC) regulations do not permit telemarketers to use auto dialers toplace calls to mobile phones. However, many subscribers report that suchcalls are still being received. Aggressive telemarketers also benefitfrom the increased deployment and availability of Voice over InternetProtocol (VoIP) equipment and services. For example, a telemarketer mayuse a VoIP based auto dialer to place large numbers of calls over theInternet. The telemarketer may change locations and equipment oftenenough to effectively avoid meaningful detection and countermeasures.Do-not-call registries/lists exist in many jurisdictions. However,subscribers often report that certain callers are ignoring thedo-not-call list(s). In addition, certain callers are exempt fromcomplying with do-not-call laws and regulations, e.g., politicalcallers, charities and local businesses.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, the present disclosure describes a method forprocessing a call. For example, the method receives the call from adevice of a caller destined to a device of a subscriber of acommunication network. The method connects the call to the device of thesubscriber and then receives from the device of the subscriber anindication that the call is an undesirable call. The indication furtherincludes a description of the call. The method then provides a reward tothe subscriber when the indication further includes the description ofthe call.

In another embodiment, the present disclosure describes a method forfiltering a call. For example, the method receives the call from adevice of a caller destined to a device of a subscriber of acommunication network and retrieves a profile of the subscriber. Theprofile specifies a threshold for filtering the call from the device ofthe caller. The threshold is determined by the subscriber and comprisesa level of tagging, by other subscribers of the communication network,associated with a source identifier of the device of the caller beingidentified as a source of an undesirable call. The method thendetermines the source identifier of the device of the subscribersatisfies the threshold. When the threshold is satisfied, the methodfilters the call according to the profile of the subscriber.

In still another embodiment, the present disclosure describes a furthermethod for processing a call. For example, the method receives the callfrom a device of a caller via a communication network. The method thenobtains from the subscriber an indication that the call is anundesirable call. The indication further includes a description of thecall. The method then transmits to the communication network theindication that includes the description of the call and receives fromthe communication network a notification of a reward to the subscriberin response to the transmitting to the communication network theindication that includes the description of the call.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The teaching of the present disclosure can be readily understood byconsidering the following detailed description in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network related to the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of a method for processing a call,according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method for filtering a call,according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a further method for processing acall, according to the present disclosure; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a high-level block diagram of a general-purposecomputer suitable for use in performing the functions, methods andalgorithms described herein.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have beenused, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common tothe figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure describes social telephony firewall devices,methods and computer-readable media that leverage a subscriber base of acommunications network and/or contacts of a subscriber to identifysources of undesirable calls and to filter calls from these sources foralternative call handling. For example, after a call, a subscriber maybe prompted by his or her endpoint device or by the network to engage atagging service for tagging the call as an undesirable call. In oneembodiment, the subscriber may then be additionally prompted to furthercategorize the call. For example, the subscriber may provide adescription of the call, e.g., the type of call, the purpose of the calland/or characteristics of the caller. A description of the type of callmay comprise: an automated call, a sales call, a fundraiser call, apolitical call, a telemarketer call, a survey call, etc. A descriptionof the purpose of the call may relate to the subject of the call, e.g.,a particular product or service (e.g., insurance sales, timeshare sales,car sales, telecommunications service sales and the like), politicaladvocating, political fundraising, a survey about televisionprogramming, a survey about public transportation services, etc.Characteristics of the caller may describe the attitude or manner of thecaller, e.g., whether the caller was aggressive, impolite, rude and soforth. A description of a characteristic of the caller may furtherinclude a scale for the subscriber to rank the characteristic of thecaller (e.g., 1 to 10, where 1 is not at all abusive and 10 is mostabusive, etc.). The user may select from choices using a touchpad, or beengaged through an interactive voice response (IVR) system either on thesubscriber's endpoint device or hosted in the network. In one example,after the subscriber provides an initial description of the call, thesubscriber may also be prompted to provide more detailed informationregarding the call. For instance, if the subscriber first identifies acall as a sales call (e.g., a type of call), the subscriber may beprompted to provide further indication that the call related to a carsales offer, a restaurant discount offer, an insurance offer, etc.(e.g., a purpose of the call).

When a particular caller has been tagged by a threshold number of timesby different subscribers, the caller may then be filtered, e.g.,blocked, warned, throttled, etc. In one example, subsequent calls fromthe caller to a subscriber may be given a different call handling, e.g.,sending the call automatically to a subscriber's voicemail with anintroductory recording that indicates the call was flagged as being froman undesirable caller. It should be noted that the subscribers may tagcalls, which are then aggregated by source identifiers of the devices ofthe callers. For example, the device of the caller may be identifiedacross different calls based upon one or more different sourceidentifiers, including: a telephone number, a mobile equipmentidentifier (MEID), an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)number, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) address or other device identifier.

The subscriber receiving the call may not actually be aware of one ormore of the source identifiers of the device of the caller. Forinstance, the subscriber typically would not know the IMEI number of thecaller's device. In addition, the caller may have caller identification(ID) blocking activated. However, these source identifiers are typicallymore readily available to the network provider. Thus, from theperspective of a subscriber, the subscriber may simply tag a call. Fromthe perspective of the network, the same tag may relate to both the callas well as the calling device (e.g., as determined by the sourceidentifier) or the caller. The network will aggregate subscriber's tagsof incoming calls by source identifiers of the devices of callers. Thus,the present disclosure may interchangeably refer to tagging a call,tagging a device of a caller, tagging a caller, or tagging a sourceidentifier of a caller.

In one example, the threshold for filtering a caller is based not uponexceeding a raw number of tags, but is based upon a rate at which callsfrom the caller are tagged, e.g., 100 tags per week, etc. The networkmay maintain counts, or scores regarding a level of tagging for anycalling device that has been tagged at least once as being a source ofan undesirable call. The method may also store other information inconnection with calling devices, including counts of the number ofsubscribers who have indicated that the caller is of a particularcategory, average scores of the caller on various characteristicsscales, e.g., an average ranking of 9 out of 10 on an abusiveness scaleas ranked by subscribers who have given feedback regarding the caller,and so forth.

In one example, the network sets default settings for subscribers of thesocial telephony firewall service. For instance, the network may set athreshold to block calls from callers that have been tagged 100 times ormore. Each subscriber may then modify the default settings, e.g., asubscriber can request that calls be blocked from all callers that havebeen tagged only 50 times. In another example, a subscriber may sethis/her personal preferences such that all calls from callers that haveexceeded a particular tagging threshold for a particular category (e.g.,insurance sales) should be blocked. On the other hand, anothersubscriber may allow such callers if the subscriber does not object tosuch callers even when such callers have exceeded the tagging threshold.For example, the subscriber may currently be shopping for insurance andmay temporarily welcome receiving insurance sales calls. A differentsubscriber may desire to allow all sales calls except for calls fromcallers who have been tagged as abusive more than a threshold number oftimes. Subscribers may also vary their configurations depending upon thetime of day, e.g., using a lower threshold for blocking callers duringbusiness hours and using a higher threshold for other times, e.g., after5:00 pm.

As an incentive to subscribers to participate and to provide furtherlevels of detail regarding undesirable calls, the network may providerewards to a subscriber based upon the number of tags of undesirablecalls provided by the subscriber. For example, a subscriber may tag acall as an undesirable call. In addition, the subscriber may furtherprovide a description of the call that indicates the type of call, thepurpose of the call and/or characteristics of the caller. For instance,the subscriber may indicate that the call is a sales call, that thecaller ranked as 7 out of 10 in terms of rudeness, and so forth. Forinstance, the subscriber may choose between a number of predefinedchoices provided by the network for categorizing the call. Thesubscriber may be given a reward, or a greater reward as compared to ifthe subscriber simply tagged the call as an undesirable call and did notprovide the additional description(s) regarding the call. For example,the network may provide credits to the subscriber's account, subsidizethe social telephony firewall service to a greater degree for thesubscriber, offer redeemable rewards points, and so forth.

As further incentive, or simply as feature of the social telephonyfirewall service, in one example the tags of subscribers with a greaterlevel of participation and who provide greater level of detail may beafforded greater weight in calculating a level of tagging of a caller.For instance, if a subscriber consistently provides extra information(i.e., more detailed descriptions) regarding tagged calls/callers, thesubscriber's tags may be given greater weight in calculating a taggingscore of the caller. Such subscribers may be deemed to be “valued”tagging subscribers or “trusted” tagging subscribers. For example, adefault threshold for a caller being tagged as a source of undesirablecalls may be “100”. When a subscriber deemed to have a high level ofparticipation tags a particular caller, the subscriber's tag may counttwice or 1.5 times towards meeting this threshold, whereas a tag from asubscriber who only tags calls without provide further description andfurther details may have his or her tag be counted at face value, e.g.,1, or even at a discounted weight e.g., 0.75. Thresholds for determiningwhen a subscriber is considered to be a “valued tagging subscriber” maybe set by the network. Similarly, the relative weighting to apply to thetagging of different categories of subscriber may also be set by thenetwork.

To aid in understanding the present disclosure, FIG. 1 illustrates ablock diagram of an exemplary communication system 100, constructed inaccordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. The presentdisclosure may be embodied as a network-based server hosting and/orexecuting a social telephony firewall service to process incoming calls,e.g., call setup/signaling messages, to perform filtering of theincoming calls prior to forwarding to subscriber devices, and toaggregate and store tagging information provided by various subscribersregarding sources of undesirable calls, and to perform other functionsdescribed above. For example, the present disclosure may comprise asoftware tool that is deployed on an application server, a call controlelement, a border element or other network-based device or server.Although the present disclosure is discussed below in the context ofexemplary access networks and an Internet Protocol/Multi-Protocol LabelSwitching (IP/MPLS) core network, the present disclosure is not solimited. Namely, the present disclosure can be applied to communicationnetworks in general, e.g., cellular networks, Internet Protocol (IP)Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) networks, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)networks, and the like, or any other network suitable for voicetelephony.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, endpoint devices 102-107 are configured forcommunication with the network 110 (e.g., an IP/MPLS core backbonenetwork, supported by a service provider) via access networks 101 and108. The endpoint devices 102-107 may comprise wired and wirelessphones, cellular phones, terminal adapters, personal computers, laptopcomputers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), servers, and the like. Inone embodiment, any one or more of endpoint devices 102-107 may comprisea subscriber device (e.g., a device of a subscriber of network 110) ormay comprise a device of a user whose communications will be carried viathe network 110 (e.g., a non-subscriber). The access networks 101 and108 serve as a conduit to establish a connection between the endpointdevices 102-107 and the border elements (BEs) 109 and 111 of the corenetwork 110. The access networks 101, 108 may each comprise a digitalsubscriber line (DSL) network, a broadband cable access network, a localarea network (LAN), a wireless access network (WAN), a cellular/mobilenetwork, a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) network, the Internet, and thelike.

BEs 109 and 111 are network elements which reside at the edge of thecore infrastructure and interface with endpoint devices for signalingand routing purposes over various types of access networks. A BE istypically configured to serve as an edge router, a media gateway, afirewall, and the like. Network 110 may also include a call controlelement (CCE) 114, a media server (MS) 118 and other network elements,e.g., NE 119, which may comprise a voicemail server, a honeypot, atarpit, or other network component. The CCE 114 is typically implementedas a media gateway controller or a softswitch and performs network widecall control related functions as well as interacts with the appropriateservice related servers, when necessary. The CCE 114 functions as asession initiation protocol (SIP) back-to-back user agent and is asignaling endpoint for all call legs between all BEs and the CCE 114.Media server 118 typically handles and terminates media streams, andprovides services such as announcements, bridges, transcoding, andInteractive Voice Response (IVR) messages.

Network 110 may also comprise an application server (AS) 112 thatcontains a database 115. The application server 112 may comprise anyserver or computer that is well known in the art, and the database 115may be any type of electronic collection of data that is well known inthe art. For example, AS 112 and DB 115 may be implemented as acomputing device such as illustrated in FIG. 5 and described below. Inone embodiment, AS 112 may store and retrieve subscriber profiles fromDB 115, e.g., preferences and filtering rules regarding handling ofundesirable calls in accordance with the present disclosure. AS 112/DB115 may also collect, gather and store information on the tagging ofcallers and/or the devices of such callers as sources of undesirablecalls. In other words, AS 112/DB 115 may provide various aspects of asocial telephony firewall service in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

In one example, if the network 110 receives a call towards the endpointdevice 102 (e.g., a subscriber device) from endpoint device 105 (e.g., acalling endpoint device), the call control element (CCE) 114 may receivethe signaling message to setup the call. For example, if a call isoriginated by the endpoint device 105 towards the endpoint device 102,the CCE 114 may receive a setup message, e.g., SIP signaling message,for setting up the call. Typically, the CCE 114 determines the routinglogic for the destination address and forwards the signaling messagetowards the appropriate signaling gateway router serving the calledparty destination (in this case BE 109), as part of the normal processof establishing a call via network 110.

In accordance with the present disclosure, the CCE 114 may communicatewith AS 112 to determine the routing logic for handling the call. Forinstance, AS 112 may retrieve information stored in DB 115 regarding thesubscriber preferences of the subscriber associated with the calledendpoint device 102. AS 112 may also retrieve information stored in DB115 regarding tagging of the calling endpoint device, e.g., based uponinformation in the call setup signaling message from CCE 114. Forexample, AS 112 may look up the calling endpoint device 105, in thedatabase and retrieve information regarding a level of tagging of thecalling endpoint device/caller as a source of undesirable calls. Thecalling endpoint device may be referenced by any of the above describedsource identifiers such as a telephone number, IMEI number, etc. If arecord exists for the caller/calling endpoint device, AS 112 may thenapply the call the filtering rule(s) contained in the subscriber profileof the subscriber of endpoint device 102.

If the call does not match one of the filtering rules, then AS 112 mayindicate to the CCE 114 that the call setup signaling message should beforwarded to BE 109 for normal call processing. On the other hand, ifthe caller/endpoint device 105 matches one of the filtering rules, thenthe AS 112 may provide call routing logic for the CCE to filter the calland/or to perform alternative call handling, as directed by thefiltering rule of the subscriber. For example, the CCE 114 may beprovided with routing logic to drop or block the call, to provide amessage back to the endpoint device 105 indicating that the call hasbeen blocked, to forward the call to a voicemail server, e.g., NE 119,for the caller to leave a message for the subscriber of endpoint device102, and so forth.

In one embodiment, the application server 112 may also receive taginformation from subscriber devices (e.g., any one or more of endpointdevices 102-107) via the border elements 109 and 111. In anotherembodiment, the border elements 109 and 111 may periodically uploadaggregate tagging information to the application server 112 and/or thedatabase 115. In particular, at the end of a call, a subscriber may tagthe call as an undesirable call, and may provide a further descriptionregarding the call, e.g., a type of call, a purpose of the call and/orcharacteristics of the caller. The subscriber may provide suchinformation on his or her own initiative, or may be prompted by thesubscriber's device and/or by a network element of network 110. Forexample, the caller may press a predefined series of keys (e.g., *99) atthe end of the call to indicate that the caller is tagging the call asan undesirable call. The caller may then have the opportunity to providethe further information regarding the call/caller. For instance, BE 109may recognize the predefined tone sequence as a request to tag the call.The BE 109 may signal to CCE 114 that a session should be establishedbetween endpoint device 102 and AS 112 to allow the subscriber toprovide a further description of the call. In one example, the sessionmay include MS 118, e.g., to engage the subscriber in an IVR dialog tosolicit further information from the subscriber.

Regardless of the manner in which AS 112 comes to possess such tagginginformation and call descriptions from the subscribers, the responses ofthe subscribers may then be stored in DB 115. In particular, if a callis tagged, the AS 112 may aggregate the tag with any other previous tagsregarding the same calling endpoint device/caller. Any new or updatedinformation regarding the caller/calling endpoint device may then beused by AS 112 in conjunction with subscribers' profiles/filtering rulesto determine how to handle future calls from the calling endpoint deviceto any other subscribers of network 110. In addition, subscribers mayinteract with AS 112 to update, modify or change their preferences,e.g., filter rules contained in subscriber profiles regarding thepreferred handling of undesirable calls. For example, subscribers mayaccess AS 112 over a web interface, via a personal computer, using adial-in IVR system or other automated response system (e.g., implementedby MS 118), and so forth.

The above IP network is described only to provide an illustrativeenvironment in which voice, data and video packets can be transmitted oncommunication networks and in which various embodiments of the presentdisclosure may be employed. Thus, those skilled in the art will realizethat although only six endpoint devices, two access networks, and fivenetwork elements (NEs) are depicted in FIG. 1, the system 100 may beexpanded by including additional endpoint devices, access networks, andnetwork elements without altering the present disclosure. Similarly,although various network elements are shown as discrete components,those skilled in the art will realize that one or more of suchcomponents may be consolidated into a lesser number of network elementsand that functions described in connection with a particular networkelement may in fact be assigned to a different network element. Forexample, the CCE 114 and AS 112 may, in one example, comprise a singledevice. In another example, the functions of AS 112 and DB 115 may beimplemented in BE 109 and/or BE 111 instead. In other words, the socialtelephony firewall service of the present disclosure may be implementedin a border element, e.g., in a signaling and/or media gateway, insteadof in the AS 112, as illustrated. Various other system architectures andmodifications of this nature are possible in accordance with the presentdisclosure, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

To further aid in understanding the present disclosure, FIG. 2illustrates a flowchart of a method 200 for processing a call. In anembodiment, the method 200 can be deployed in and/or performed by theapplication server for providing a social telephony firewall service.However, in other, further and different embodiments, the method 200 maybe performed by one or more other devices, such as any one or more ofthe devices shown in system 100 of FIG. 1. In one embodiment, the method200 is performed by a general purpose computing device having aprocessor, a memory and input/output devices as illustrated below inFIG. 5, specifically programmed to perform the steps, functions and/oroperations of the method.

Method 200 starts in step 205 and proceeds to step 210.

In step 210, method 200 receives a call from a device of a callerdestined to a device of a subscriber via a communication network. Forexample, the method 200 may receive a call setup signaling message forthe device of the subscriber forwarded from an access network to thecommunication network.

In step 220, the method 200 connects the call to the device of thesubscriber. For example, the method may consult a social telephonyfirewall service profile of the subscriber. If the device of the callerdoes not fall within any filtering rules of the subscriber, the method200 may simply allow normal call signaling and setup to proceed to allowthe call to be established between the device of the caller and thedevice of the subscriber.

At step 230, the method 200 receives an indication that the call is anundesirable call. For example, the subscriber may dial a predeterminedsequence e.g., “*99”, in order to signal to the method 200 that thesubscriber is tagging the call as an undesirable call. In anotherembodiment the subscriber may signal a desire to tag the call using avoice command. For example, the method 200 may recognize a voice commanduttered by the subscriber as signaling a desire to tag the call.

At step 230, the method may also prompt the subscriber to provide adescription of the call. For example, the method may prompt thesubscriber to indicate a type of the call, a purpose of the call, acharacteristic of the caller, scores/ratings of the caller with respectto one or more characteristics, and so forth. In response, thesubscriber may then volunteer further information regarding the call.However, in another example, the subscriber may simply volunteer suchinformation along with an indication that the call is an undesirablecall, which is received by the method at step 230.

At step 240, the method 200 provides a notification of a reward to thesubscriber when the indication received at step 230 includes adescription of the call. For example, if the subscriber providesadditional information beyond simply tagging the call as an undesirablecall, the subscriber may be provided a reward such as a service creditwith the communication network for a service provided by thecommunication network, e.g., conferencing service, a data plan service,or redeemable rewards points that can be used for purchasing items witha partner retailer and so forth. In one embodiment, the notification maycomprises an automated voice call, a voice message, an email message, atext message, and so forth, depending upon the capabilities of thecommunication network and/or the preferences of the subscriber forreceiving such notification. In one embodiment, the method 200 selects alevel of reward to provide to the subscriber based upon the level ofdetail regarding the tagged call provided by the subscriber at step 230.In other words, the more information provided by the subscriber, thegreater the reward will be selected for the subscriber and indicated inthe notification that is sent at step 240.

Following step 240, the method 200 proceeds to step 295 where the methodends.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method 300 for filtering a call. Inone embodiment, the method 300 can be deployed in and/or performed by anapplication server for providing a social telephony firewall service.However, in other, further and different embodiments, the method 300 maybe performed by any one or more of the other devices shown in system 100of FIG. 1, e.g., a call control element, a border element, and so forth.In one embodiment, the method 300 is performed by a general purposecomputing device having a processor, a memory and input/output devicesas illustrated below in FIG. 5, specifically programmed to perform thesteps, functions and/or operations of the method.

Method 300 starts in step 305 and proceeds to step 310. In step 310,method 300 receives a call from a device of a caller destined to adevice of a subscriber via a communication network. For example, themethod 300 may receive a call setup signaling message for the device ofthe subscriber forwarded from an access network to the communicationnetwork.

In step 320, method 300 retrieves a subscriber profile associated withthe subscriber and/or the device of the subscriber. For example, thedevice of the subscriber may be identified based upon calldestination/recipient information in the call setup signaling message.The profile may include filtering rules determined by the subscriberwhich set one or more thresholds with respect to a level of tagging ofcallers that dictates when a call from a device of caller should befiltered for alternative call handling. For example, one filtering rulemay specify that calls be blocked from all callers who have been taggedmore than a threshold, e.g., 50 times. In one embodiment, the subscribermay also configure the profile to vary various thresholds andpreferences depending upon the time of day, certain categories ofcallers, and so forth.

The subscriber profile may also specify certain rules regarding theweights to apply to tags of other subscribers. For example, thesubscriber may set a threshold of “100” for blocking calls fromundesirable callers. In one example, 80 subscribers may have alreadytagged calls originating from a particular calling device as being asource of undesirable calls. Using a raw count, this particular callingdevice has not yet exceeded the subscriber defined threshold of 100.However, the subscriber may further specify that tags of contacts (e.g.,friends and family) of the subscriber should be given a weight of “5”.Thus, if five of the 80 subscribers who have tagged the calling deviceare also contacts of the subscriber, the overall weighted score may berecalculated as (75+(5×5)=100). In this scenario, the calling devicedoes satisfy the threshold of 100 and the call is subject to blocking orother alternative call handling as specified in the subscriber profile.In a similar example, greater weight may be afforded to tags from other“valued” tagging subscribers in the social telephony firewall service.The weightings may be applied by default or may be specified by thesubscriber as part of his/her individual profile. It should be notedthat the method 300 may determine which subscribers are contacts usingany presently available techniques. For instance, the method may simplylook at a contact list of the subscriber stored on the device of thesubscriber or in a subscriber profile stored within the communicationnetwork. In another example, the method may have access to socialnetwork profile information regarding the subscriber and his or hercontacts via the social network. For example, the method may access suchinformation via a social network gateway (SNG) between the communicationnetwork and the social network.

At step 330, the method 300 determines whether the device of the callerhas exceeded a threshold level of tagging by other subscribers of thecommunication network. In one embodiment, step 330 includes comparingthe stored information regarding the device of the caller against one ormore of the filtering rules in the subscriber profile of the calledsubscriber retrieved at step 320 to determine whether the device of thecaller exceeds a threshold level of tagging. For instance, as describedabove a count of a number of tags of a particular device of a caller maybe maintained. In addition to a count of a number of tags relating tothe caller/calling device being identified a source of an undesirablecall, additional information may be available such as a count of thenumber of times the caller has been tagged as being a particular type ofcaller, e.g., a telemarketer, a charity, a survey entity, a politicalorganization, etc., more detailed category information, e.g., timesharesales, insurance sales, car sales, and the like, as well as averagescores of the caller across different characteristics categories, e.g.,rudeness, aggressiveness, persistence, and so on. In other words, step330 may comprise the application of different thresholds to differenttypes of aggregate information available regarding the device of thecaller, e.g., type of call information, purpose of call information, andcaller characteristics information.

In one embodiment, at step 330 the method 300 applies weightings tovarious tags prior to determining whether the calling device satisfies athreshold of one or more filtering rules contained in the subscriberprofile. For instance, step 330 may involve applying weights to one ormore of the tags depending upon which subscriber provided the tag, e.g.,a subscriber with a higher level of participation in the socialtelephony firewall service, another subscriber who is a contact of thecalled subscriber, and so forth.

If at step 330, the method 300 determines that the calling devicesatisfies one or more thresholds regarding a level of tagging, themethod proceeds to step 340 where the method filters the call. Forexample, if there are multiple thresholds specified in the filteringrules of the subscriber profile, depending upon which threshold has beenmet, the method may implement a particular call handling as specified inthe associated filtering rule. For example, a filtering rule may specifya threshold of 50 tags of a calling device as being a source ofundesirable calls. The filtering rule may further specify that when acall is received from a calling device that satisfies this threshold,the call should be rerouted to a voicemail server. The voicemail servermay play a pre-recorded announcement for the caller prior to allowingthe caller to leave a voice message for the subscriber. In anotherexample, the filtering rule may specify that that the call should beblocked, dropped, routed to another endpoint device, and so forth. Inanother example, the filtering rule may specify that a notificationmessage should be sent back to the calling device indicating that thecall has been blocked, dropped, rerouted, and so forth.

If at step 330, the method determines that the device of the caller doesnot satisfy any threshold(s) of any filtering rules defined by thesubscriber in the subscriber profile, the method proceeds to step 360.

At step 360, the method connects the call to the device of thesubscriber. For example, the method 300 may implement normal callprocessing/routing to establish the call.

At optional step 370, the method 300 obtains feedback from the device ofthe subscriber following the call. For example, step 370 may involve thesame or similar functions to those described above in connection withstep 230 of FIG. 2.

At optional step 380, the method 300 provides a notification of a rewardto the subscriber, e.g., when the subscriber provides a more detaileddescription regarding the call at step 370. Notably, step 380 maycomprise the same or similar functions to those described above inconnection with step 240 of FIG. 2.

Following any of steps 340, 360, 370 or 380, the method 300 proceeds tostep 395 where the method ends.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a method 400 for processing call. Inone embodiment, the method 400 can be deployed in and/or performed by anendpoint device of a subscriber, e.g., a wired or wireless telephone, asoftphone, a terminal adapter, a cellular phone, and so forth.Alternatively, one or more steps, operations or functions of the method400 may be implemented by a general purpose computer having a processor,a memory and input/output devices as illustrated below in FIG. 5,specifically programmed to perform the steps, functions and/oroperations of the method.

Method 400 starts in step 405 and proceeds to step 410. In step 410, themethod 400 receives a call for a subscriber from a device of a callervia a communication network. For example, the subscriber may be asubscriber/customer of the communication network.

At step 420, the method 400 receives an indication that the call is anundesirable call. In one example, the method 400 may prompt thesubscriber at the end of the call to indicate whether the call was anundesirable call. Alternatively, step 420 may comprise receiving asubscriber input during or after the call to indicate that the call isan undesirable call. For example, as described above in connection withstep 230 of FIG. 2, the subscriber may provide a voice command or entera predetermined sequence of keys/tones to indicate a desire to tag thecall as an undesirable call. In one example, the indication that thecall is an undesirable call further includes a description of the call.The description of the call may comprise a type of call, a purpose ofthe call, characteristics of the caller, and so forth.

At step 430, the method 400 transmits the indication that the call is anundesirable call to the communication network. For example, the method400 may transmit the indication to an application server in thecommunication network that implements a social telephony firewallservice in accordance with the present disclose. In one example, theindication further includes the description of the call obtained at step420. In one example, the indication that the call is an undesirable callcomprises a tag that is forwarded to the communication network. The tagmay be aggregated with other tags pertaining to the same caller/sourceidentifier of the calling device for use in subsequent call blocking,call rerouting, and other call treatment according to subscriberprofiles of other subscribers.

At step 440, the method 400 provides a notification of a reward to thesubscriber. In one example, the method 400 receives a notification ofthe reward from the communication network and passes the notification tothe subscriber. For example, the method may display a text message orplay an audio recording, depending upon the format of the notificationreceived from the communication network and/or the playback preferencesof the subscriber.

Following step 440, the method 400 proceeds to step 495 where the methodends.

In addition, although not specifically specified, one or more steps,functions or operations of the respective methods 200, 300 and 400 mayinclude a storing, displaying and/or outputting step as required for aparticular application. In other words, any data, records, fields,and/or intermediate results discussed in the methods can be stored,displayed and/or outputted either on the device executing the methods200, 300 or 400, or to another device, as required for a particularapplication.

Furthermore, steps, blocks, functions or operations in FIGS. 2-4 thatrecite a determining operation or involve a decision do not necessarilyrequire that both branches of the determining operation be practiced. Inother words, one of the branches of the determining operation can bedeemed as an optional step. Furthermore, steps, blocks, functions oroperations of the above described methods can be combined, separated,and/or performed in a different order from that described above, withoutdeparting from the example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 depicts a high-level block diagram of a general-purpose computersuitable for use in performing the functions described herein. Asdepicted in FIG. 5, the system 500 comprises a hardware processorelement 502 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU) or a microprocessor),a memory 504, e.g., random access memory (RAM) and/or read only memory(ROM), a module 505 for providing a social telephony firewall service,and various input/output devices 506 (e.g., storage devices, includingbut not limited to, a tape drive, a floppy drive, a hard disk drive or acompact disk drive, a receiver, a transmitter, a speaker, a display, aspeech synthesizer, an output port, an input port and a user inputdevice (such as a keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a microphone and thelike)).

It should be noted that the present disclosure can be implemented insoftware and/or in a combination of software and hardware, e.g., usingapplication specific integrated circuits (ASIC), a general purposecomputer or any other hardware equivalents. In one embodiment,instructions and data for the present module or process 505 forproviding a social telephony firewall service can be loaded into memory504 and executed by processor 502 to implement the steps, functions oroperations as discussed above in connection with the exemplary methods200, 300 and 400. The processor executing the computer readable orsoftware instructions relating to the above described method(s) can beperceived as a programmed processor or a specialized processor. As such,the present module 505 for providing a social telephony firewall service(including associated data structures) of the present disclosure can bestored on a tangible or physical (broadly non-transitory)computer-readable storage device or medium, e.g., volatile memory,non-volatile memory, ROM memory, RAM memory, magnetic or optical drive,device or diskette and the like. More specifically, thecomputer-readable storage device may comprise any physical devices thatprovide the ability to store information such as data and/orinstructions to be accessed by a processor or a computing device such asa computer or an application server.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferred embodiment shouldnot be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, butshould be defined only in accordance with the following claims and theirequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for processing a call, the methodcomprising: receiving, by a processor deployed in a communicationnetwork, the call from a device of a caller destined to a device of asubscriber of the communication network; connecting, by the processor,the call to the device of the subscriber; receiving, by the processor,from the device of the subscriber, an indication that the call is anundesirable call, wherein the indication further includes a descriptionof the call as provided by the subscriber, wherein the indication is averbal response to an interactive voice response system, wherein thedescription of the call comprises a ranking of an attitude of thecaller; and providing, by the processor, a notification of a reward tothe subscriber when the indication further includes the description ofthe call.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the call is connected to thedevice of the subscriber when a source identifier of the device of thecaller has not been tagged greater than a threshold number of times asbeing a source of undesirable calls.
 3. The method of claim 2, whereinthe threshold is determined by the subscriber.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the description of the call further comprises an identificationof a category of the caller.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein thecategory of the caller is selected from one of: a telemarketer; apolitical organization; a charity; and a survey organization.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the reward comprises a service credit or areward point.
 7. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing aplurality of instructions which, when executed by a processor deployedin a communication network, cause the processor to perform operationsfor processing a call, the operations comprising: receiving the callfrom a device of a caller destined to a device of a subscriber of thecommunication network; connecting the call to the device of thesubscriber; receiving from the device of the subscriber, an indicationthat the call is an undesirable call, wherein the indication furtherincludes a description of the call as provided by the subscriber,wherein the indication is a verbal response to an interactive voiceresponse system, wherein the description of the call comprises a rankingof an attitude of the caller; and providing a notification of a rewardto the subscriber when the indication further includes the descriptionof the call.
 8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7,wherein the call is connected to the device of the subscriber when asource identifier of the device of the caller has not been taggedgreater than a threshold number of times as being a source ofundesirable calls.
 9. The non-transitory computer readable medium ofclaim 8, wherein the threshold is determined by the subscriber.
 10. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein thedescription of the call further comprises an identification of acategory of the caller.
 11. The non-transitory computer readable mediumof claim 10, wherein the category of the caller is selected from one of:a telemarketer; a political organization; a charity; and a surveyorganization.
 12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim7, wherein the reward comprises a service credit or a reward point. 13.An apparatus deployed in a communication network for processing a call,the apparatus comprising: a processor; and a computer readable mediumstoring a plurality of instructions which, when executed by theprocessor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operationscomprising: receiving the call from a device of a caller destined to adevice of a subscriber of the communication network; connecting the callto the device of the subscriber; receiving from the device of thesubscriber, an indication that the call is an undesirable call, whereinthe indication further includes a description of the call as provided bythe subscriber, wherein the indication is a verbal response to aninteractive voice response system, wherein the description of the callcomprises a ranking of an attitude of the caller; and providing anotification of a reward to the subscriber when the indication furtherincludes the description of the call.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13,wherein the call is connected to the device of the subscriber when asource identifier of the device of the caller has not been taggedgreater than a threshold number of times as being a source ofundesirable calls.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the thresholdis determined by the subscriber.
 16. The apparatus of claim 13, whereinthe description of the call further comprises an identification of acategory of the caller.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein thecategory of the caller is selected from one of: a telemarketer; apolitical organization; a charity; and a survey organization.
 18. Theapparatus of claim 13, wherein the reward comprises a service credit ora reward point.